According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were
kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have
survived because ...

our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint
which was promptly chewed and licked.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or
cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and
fluorescent 'spokey dokey's' on our wheels.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags -
riding in the passenger seat was a treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it
tasted the same.

We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice with
sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside
playing.

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and
no-one actually died from this.

We would spend hours-building go-carts out of scraps and then went
top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.

After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve
the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as
we were back before it got dark.

No one was able to reach us and no one minded.

We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No
99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile
phones, no personal computers, no DVD's, no Internet.

We had friends - we went outside and found them.

We played elastics and rounders and sometimes that ball really hurt!

We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no law
suits.

We had full on fistfights but no prosecution followed from other
parents.

We played knock-down-ginger and were actually afraid of the owners
catching us.

We walked to friends' homes.

We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy
or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls.

We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard
of...They actually sided with the law.

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem

solvers and inventors, ever.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned
how to deal with it all.

And you're one of them. Congratulations!

Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real
kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.

For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like to
read about us.

The majority of students in universities today were born in
1986........They are called youth.

They have never heard of We are the World, We are the children, and
the Uptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel. They have never
heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Nena Cherry or Belinda Carlisle.

For them, there has always been only one Germany and one Vietnam.

AIDS has existed since they were born. CD's have existed since they
were born.

Michael Jackson has always been white.

To them John Travolta has always been round in shape and they can't
imagine how this fat guy could be a god of dance.

They believe that Charlie's Angels and Mission Impossible are films
from last year.

They can never imagine life before computers.

They'll never have pretended to be the A Team, RedHand Gang or the
Famous Five.

They'll never have applied to be on Jim'll Fix It or Why Don't You.

They can't believe a black and white television ever existed.

And they will never understand how we could leave the house without a
mobile phone.

Now let's check if we're getting old...

1. You understand what was written above and you smile.
2. You need to sleep more, usually until the afternoon, after a night
out.
3. Your friends are getting married/already married.
4. You are always surprised to see small children playing comfortably
with computers.
5. When you see teenagers with mobile phones, you shake your head.
6. You remember watching Dirty Den in EastEnders the first time
around.
7. You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the good
old
days, repeating again all the funny things you have experienced
together.
8. Having read this, you are thinking of forwarding it to some friends because you think they will like it too... Yes, you're
getting old!!

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Fri Feb 03, 2006 7:53 pm

emm-25

so true

Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:05 pm

carlypoo

ED frequent user

Joined: Tue May 03, 2005 9:16 pmPosts: 495Location: Warwickshire

DEFINITELY!

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Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:06 pm

madmoo127

ED MEGA BABE

Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2005 3:41 pmPosts: 1117Location: Northern Ireland

Oh my word Im getting old!! The funny thing is tho the first one aboutt he cots - the number of things ive been telling my mum bout all the new heatlh regulations etc her comments being 'you wonder how you lot survived!'

Its true tho - the god old days!! Gawd Im only 22 and felt old reading that!!

Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:12 pm

scarlet*vixen

ED MEGA BABE

Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2005 4:46 pmPosts: 2942

me too!

Im only 24 and reading that has made me feel old

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Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:13 pm

Angela549

ED frequent user

Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2005 1:12 pmPosts: 303Location: N. Ireland

Thats so true

Angela

Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:14 pm

mrsflibble

lolz,
although my family had a pc... it was a bbc micro but it not only had a floppy drive (5.5in) but it also had a voice synthesizer. i loved it.

Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:31 pm

sarah_mgs

ED MEGA BABE

Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2006 7:55 pmPosts: 1341

Bloody hell.
I love Billy Joel! I am old. I had records as a child, not CDS.I used to make and eat Mud pies, can you imagine what the ss would say to me if I let the girls eat mud pies? I think its sad you know, really sad.

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Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:31 pm

madmoo127

ED MEGA BABE

Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2005 3:41 pmPosts: 1117Location: Northern Ireland

MRSF we'd the good old bbc and acorn computers too ran off a cassette player!! still have them in a cupboard at mums - should dig them out and get them on ebay

Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:32 pm

mrsflibble

ours has cassette too...used that before grandad got the disk drive. think my mum still has bits of it in her loft! I have one game left that i kept to show my children. it's an early 80s star wars game and i saved it cos it's on 5.5in floppy. WHEN FLOPPIES WERE ACTUALLY FLOPPY!!!

I've asked if she comes across the Texs Iinstruments games console we had that i want it. that was tape and cartridge run and has some excellent learning games on it!!!

i still have my atari 7800 too. and loads fo games for it. i have a special channel on my PCTV devoted to it so if i want to play i just hook up to the PC and it leaves the TV free for james and the playstation.

(we lived with the whole extended family so these were all family owned-we just ended up with them when everybody moved.)

Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:39 pm

LoopyLou86

ED member

Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2005 8:02 amPosts: 78Location: Nantwich, Cheshire

Just thought i would say that I was born in 1986 and I can relate to most of those things considering there is 18 years between me and my eldest sibling that is just the way I was brought up and I wish I could bring my kids up without the strict regulations there are today when children were allowed to be children!

i must be getting old as well i can remember riding a metal scooter as well, the one's with three wheels not two

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Fri Feb 03, 2006 11:23 pm

DragonsKnight

ED MEGA BABE

Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2006 11:46 pmPosts: 1463Location: Leicester

I remember the old ZX81 and Commodore 64 computers - before the BBC Micros - where you would spend twelve hours writing a program that would bat a ball across a line/net to another bat and then find that when you pressed run it wouldn;t work because you had somewhere, in the millions of lines you had written, put a full stop instead of a comma!!

But we took the time to re-read everything and find that error and put it right and enjoyed the bat and ball game!!

I'm really old!! 34 and expecting my first!!!

I think I need a lie down now! lol

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Sat Feb 04, 2006 2:50 pm

annarella

ED frequent user

Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2005 11:04 amPosts: 199

hehe u know it does feel strange to say this but ' those were the good old days!!!!!', i'm only 24, but i can remember most of that. I think that.. ok things might be safer (regarding cots, medicines etc etc etc), and theres alot more awareness/less ignorance (regarding aids, drugs, sexuality etc etc, and tons of other stuff), but i think those years were when people were really free!, now a days u can't do anything, can't eat/drink/do hardly anything without having to think twice bout the risks that get thrown in our faces everyday.

If u gave kids in those days a piece of rope and some other bits and bobs that were lying around, and god know what great game they'd be able to think up and play for hours, try that now and you'd probably get it all thrown back in your face!

anyway i think u get what i mean, i would have liked to have grown up then, unfortunatly i was born just when all that good stuff was ending, i think we got our first computer (atari with the cassettes) when i was about 6 or 7, can't remember now, but i remember spending quite a few hours playing 'frogger', 'SPYvsSPY', 'Jet Set Willy' and of course the original 'Donkey Kong'!!ooooo just remembered another but can't remember the name, there were 2 brothers like the super mario brothers but they were painters, and u had to get into rooms and paint them while avoiding the baddies!, god, i hope someone out there can remember that game!!, its going to annoy me all night now until i remember haha

anyway i'm shutting up now, have waffled on too long now!
xxx

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Sat Feb 04, 2006 5:59 pm

Triffy

ED MEGA BABE

Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 6:29 pmPosts: 1074Location: Scotland

That was great! I loved my ZX spectrum when it came out. I used to go on 10 mile bike rides as a kid ...would take a picnic and come home in time for tea...we all used to swim in the River Tummel in summer too...not an adult in sight...ahh the good old days.